Social Bicycles: Bike Sharing in Long Beach Update

Word on the boardwalk (the SoBi tent off LB Road) says that Social Bicycles (SoBi) will have 40 bikes in Long Beach by this fall with hopefully around 140 by next summer. The holdup? The bikes are currently being made in China. The electronics will installed here in the USA after they arrive.

The bikes are pretty high tech with a solar panel, computer and bike lock. The one on display doesn’t have lights installed, but I was told that they will be present and will turn on when needed.

There will be some bike kiosks on the boardwalk, but these bikes can be locked at any bike rack around town. More on how all that works will come later. In the meantime, go over to their tent every Sunday on the boardwalk off Long Beach Road and check out their bikes.

10 thoughts on “Social Bicycles: Bike Sharing in Long Beach Update”

Hopefully the city will make this a friendlier town for bikes and create REAL bike lanes that are properly paved and marked. The pot holes and loose gravel in the current gutter lanes/bike lanes make riding dangerous.

So hurry up and give social bike the contract for nothing it seems! Local cycle bid on this joband should have got it! Why wouldn’t our economic development department work with our local businesses? Discussed at march 18 city council meeting and yet every council member voted yes for social bike. And now we wait…. Money could have gone to a local company. I’m shaking my head